Originally these creatures were nothing more than armored herd animals, who lived peacefully but were able to defend themselves against predators thanks to the incredibly sharp spikes on the tip of their long tail. On average the creatures were typically about 30 feet long and around 15 feet in height. The varied in weight from 5000 to 7000 pounds and as such were often difficult to take down in a fight.

The Vesk decided to turn these creatures into front-line energy barriers. They replaced the flesh of the creatures with a supple mesh of wires which would absorb any type of energy directed at them into panels located on their spines. These panels also had a good chance to simply redirect any energy attacks directed at the augmented creatures.

As it was discovered, these panels could hold a surprisingly large amount of energy before overloading and shattering. When this happened, the energy would be released harmlessly into the atmosphere. The Vesk also included a method in which the creatures could channel the absorbed energy into their tail spikes and use the spikes as a ranged weapon. The creature had part of the tail replaced with a specialized magazine, which holds 30 spikes in total. Each time a spike is launched it would be replaced by one of these additional spikes. Once the spikes were used, the creature could either have them manually replaced, or they would simply grow at a rate of 8 per 24 hours, as long as the creature was properly fed.

Even in combat these Stegosaurus are somewhat docile. They generally will just move with other Dinosaurs, stopping often to munch on food, take a drink, or watch the pretty fireworks.  Unless they are attacked directly, they generally will ignore incoming fire, as long as the energy is absorbed. Once they take damage however, they will go into a killing rage and have the uncanny ability to know exactly who hurt them. These unfortunate individuals then become the creature’s target, and they will use their spiked tails to attack as they close the range on the target, often ignoring other creatures around them – unless they get in the way. They will then bite with their beak-like mouths, inflicting crushing damage, stomp and swing their tails at the target.

Hurting them is taken very personally!

Starfinder Creature Index

Chris Van Deelen is the creator and contributor to over half of the Wisdom from the Wastelands series, contributor to the Swords of Kos: Hekaton anthology. He also wrote Creatures of the Tropical Wastelands, and 100 Oddities found in a Car. As prolific as he is, Chris Van Deelen continues to write and produce material which will be in publication soon. Not only is he a prolific content creator, he also has a wide selection of fiction and stories! If you like his work, please follow his personal author page on Facebook and on Twitter to keep up with his latest news and game content.